Of Feathers and Angels
by MountainAir
Summary: The moment in Mockingjay when Katniss and Peeta realize that they can still be happy after all. One-shot.


A boy and a girl lie side by side in a meadow, hidden by the shade of a willow tree.

No words pass between them, but the silence itself speaks louder than any words could have. Their silence signifies their peace - their wars having fully come to an end. It signifies the losses they've grieved, the friends they've lost, and the voices they will never hear again.

But still, their hearts are filled with conciliation and peace.

The boy reaches towards her gingerly and takes her hand in his own. He traces gentle circles into the palm of her hand, following the lines of her scars and burn marks that make her who she is: the strong, beautiful girl he fell in love with - the girl who can stop his heart with just one kiss.

The girl turns her face towards him, and their eyes connect; blue meets gray, tenderness meets awe. They stare at eachother quietly, neither of them willing to break a silence so fragile, so longed for, that even softly spoken words could crumble it entirely. She reaches up with her free hand to stroke his cheek. He closes his eyes at the contact, and she smiles at the sight of his long, blond eyelashes leaving light shadows over his cheekbones. She craves to kiss them each, but she doesn't.

Instead, she waits for him to reopen his eyes, and uses their intertwined fingers to point up into the trees, towards something only she -with her years of hunting experience- is able to see. The branches above sway in the wind, causing the leaves to slip from their places and drop gracefully to the forest floor. The boy watches them for a few minutes, lost in the simple beauty he was never able to look into, trapped inside the fences of District 12. The fences that had, like so many things, released them into a quiet freedom.

But this isn't what the girl wants him to see. She shakes her head at him, smiling lightly, and points again. This time, he can see what she does. A mockingjay, perched expectantly on a high up tree branch. It stares down at the two, its eyes wide and unwavering.

If it hadn't been for its significance, the boy might have felt unsettled by its intense stare. But instead, he is filled with happiness at the sight of it, at the sight of its survival so much like their own. This small black bird is what has set them free, and what most represents the dark haired, gray eyed girl next to him that he cares for more than anything.

The girl stares up at it as well, never intending to look away. There are so many memories in this one little creature, but for once, she doesn't feel fear when they enter her mind. In fact, she is filled with more peace than she can remember. She is filled with the idea that, even after everyone and everything that has been lost, she will never truly be alone. This bird has the undeniable ability to rid her of her pain, just as the boy who holds her hand.

Even just the knowledge of its symbolic meaning takes away all of their guilt and sorrow, if only for a few moments.

After a while, the boy turns onto his side. He stares at her with adoration and joy in his eyes - so much joy, in fact, that it nearly brings them both to tears at their own luck of finding eachother in the darkness. Her own happiness increases immensely whenever he looks at her the way he is, because it means that he can never really be taken from her. The sweet, selfless person she'd once known isn't gone forever, as she'd thought at first. Like so many other times, they'd fought through the struggles together, and deflected the cruel attempts of the Capitol. Like so many times, he'd come right back to her.

At last, the girl can't take it anymore. They understand eachother so deeply that the words aren't needed to be spoken, but she can't help but whisper, "I love you."

He smiles, and pulls her closer into him. Her body against his, their love for eachother grows more than they'd thought possible. The artistic part of the boy's brain imagines their sorrow intertwining into a knot and releasing itself. Up into the trees it flies, higher and higher, until it dissapears entirely from his sight.

He breathes in deeply and closes his eyes in bliss. "I love you too," he murmurs. "More than my life."

Never before had he meant anything more than he'd meant that.

She smiles into his shoulder, her face illuminated by the light glow of the sun breaking through the shade. He can see every detail of her skin under this lighting, the way the flames have licked it, making it tender and forever rosy... but still, the most beautiful face he has ever layed eyes on. She herself thinks nothing less of him; his blue eyes that she loves so much, the eyes she craves whenever she is feeling lonely. Even his own battle scars are precious to her, representing his uncanny ability to stay alive through everything they've been put through.

They often find themselves basking in these small things, usually in moments when they are hanging onto the edge of a mental cliff, close to falling off. In moments when he clutches the back of a chair, trying to fight off bad memories, she needs to remind herself that not everything is bad. And when he comes back around, she knows that she's right.

Unfortunately, it's usually in emotional moments like these that his thoughts try to convince him of their wrongness. Sure enough, the boy's body visibly spasms, and he pushes her away.

She doesn't flinch. She doesn't even look mildly surprised at his violence towards her. Just sad, as she realizes that another of their best moments will be taken over by the taint the Capitol has left in his brain.

The boy squeezes his eyes shut and clenches his fists into his hair, looking as though he wants to pull them straight out of his head. He mentally argues with himself, desperately trying to convince the hijacked part of his brain that it's wrong, that it's being played with.

She watches his silently from a few feet away, waiting for it to be over. She hates seeing him like this, but she knows that there's nothing for her to do but wait. She's tried talking to him, telling him that everything is okay, but she finds that it never helps him. If anything, it makes it worse for him having her there.

After excrutiating minutes, he finally comes back to himself. The boy rises silently from the ground and walks over to her, his face a blurry mess of tears. She wastes no time before throwing herself into his arms and holding him as he cries. He wants to wrap up the tiny girl in his arms, kissing away her own tears, but he can't. He feels too weak, too unworthy of her, to have the permission to do so. Besides, she holds him so tightly to her that it would be hard enough trying to squirm free if he'd wanted to.

"Sing," he tells her quietly. The girl looks up, still crying softly, and wipes away his tears with her fingers.

"Okay," she says. She hasn't sung since the Rebellion, but there's no better time to do it than right here, right now, with him next to her. So she grabs his hand, and together they lie back down on the grass, her head in his lap.

The girl takes a deep breath, clears her throat, and unleashes the most angelic voice he has ever heard.

_Spend all your time waiting for that second chance_

_For a break that would make it okay_

He closes his eyes at the sound of the first note. Her voice is as perfectly flawless as her courage, and having not heard it in so many years, he's still overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of it. He wraps his arms around her torso, holding onto her like she's the only thing keeping him here on this Earth. And in reality, she is. To eachother, they are their salvations.

_There's always some reason to not feel good enough_

_And it's hard at the end of the day_

Her voice rises beautifully, never catching, never breaking. He notices immediately that she barely takes any breath into her lungs, but somehow, she manages to make it sound more captivating and amazing than anything in the entire world. Even the most famous Capitol singers that he's heard would never be able to even dream of comparing to his girl with the braid, to his Katniss.

_I need some distraction or a beautiful release_

_Memories seep through my veins_

As the lyrics of the song flow into their ears, they both find themselves thinking of the people they've lost. Their faces appear in their minds - murdered strangers, friends, and family members. But for once, they aren't filled with guilt, because they know that nothing could have been done, and that their deaths represent the sacrifices necessary for the peace people feel now, and the peace that will continue on for years.

_Let me be empty and weightless _

_And maybe I'll find some peace tonight_

The boy leans his face forward and onto the top of her head, absentmindedly stroking her dark hair behind her ears. She basks in his warmth as the peace of the song takes its effect on the both of them. Her voice is soothing, and she can forget what she's just seen. He can forget what he's just fought.

_In the arms of the angel_

_Fly away from here_

_From this dark, cold room_

_And the endlessness that you feel_

The thought enters both of their minds that they're in a similar situation to the lyrics of the song. The words are soothing and comforting, talking of a peace that is yet to be found and a girl that is safe in the arms of her angel. To her, he is her angel, and to him, she is his.

_You are pulled from the reckage_

_Of your silent reverie_

_You're in the arms of the angel_

_May you find some comfort here_

The girl's song comes to an end, and she leans back against him contently. Both of their sorrow has been pulled from them completely, leaving them both speechless and unable to come up with any words to top what has just been heard. Instead, he kisses her hair and cacoons his face in the crook of her neck, breathing in her pleasing scent of flowers, soap, and Katniss.

Not a sound can be heard in the meadow. Just as expected, her voice has rendered more than just the two of them completely silent. She looks up to find a dozen mockingjays surrounding them, high up in the trees closest to where they sit. She smiles and intertwines her fingers with the boy's, waiting patiently for the mockingjays to pick up the melody.

Sure enough, a few moments later, a choir of mockingjays begin the song softly but confidently. Not a single note strays away from the song, and the girl thinks of her father. She thinks of the way they'd fall silent and follow suit to his own voice. Her eyes sting with loss, but the tears never overflow; the boy holding her keeps them from falling. Her boy with the bread, her Peeta, is too much of a comfort to her for her sadness to overcome her this time.

With this last thought, she realizes that they've finally found serenity. With the mockingjays singing her song in the trees and his arms locked around her body, she knows that things will finally get better for them, that they can finally live safely, happily.

Just as she's thinking this, a single mockingjay flies over their heads. They watch as it soars up higher and higher into the clouds until it is out of sight.

And they watch as a single black feather falls gently through the air, only to land straight in the girl's hands.


End file.
